It’s been hot and cold in Yarrawonga so far this year. A few anglers have landed some great cod while others have gone home empty handed.

New Yarrawonga resident, George Jovanovic caught two amazing cod in late January. The first was 117cm and weighed 70lb while the second fish measured 130cm and weighed around 100lb. Both of these fish were caught on handcrafted lures made by George’s son, Sasha. These lures pull to 8m+ so George has been targeting the deeper waters around Majors Creek. He has also caught many other fish to 71cm.

Updates from Roger Miles of Cod Hunter Fishing Tours are becoming a regular feature of my reports because he spends more time fishing Lake Mulwala than anyone else. Roger and his clients have boated an incredible 114 cod in the past two months. His biggest January fish was 85cm.

The fishing downstream from the weir has been predictable with many undersize cod and trout cod landed amongst a few legal sized fish. Roger reports that cod to 65cm have been falling for Bassman Spinnerbaits cast into small back eddies behind good timber structure.

I fished Sharps Lagoon with Roger and his brother Brian recently. The boys showed me how useful Jackall lures have become in this area. They both landed some nice yellas and Brian managed to pull in a great carp that certainly gave him some curry. These Jackalls are a lipless crankbait that will certainly catch some great natives around here in the future. At $35 per lure they’re a bit costly but other cheaper lures are available. For some reason though, the Jackalls seem to out perform them on a regular basis.

Gerard Miller fished Lake Mulwala in early February and lost a snap swivel to a big green fish. It amazes me that so many anglers spend so much money in pursuit of their dream fish and yet lose fish because of one small component worth 10c. Better luck next time Gerard.

Matt Davis, Wayne O’Brien and Wes Thomas fished the lake recently and landed a great 97cm fish that weighed around 40lb. A couple of hours later they had the same hook straightened by a much bigger fish.

I’ve been focusing on surface fishing in the shallower waters around Kiffins lately. My best result was 22 strikes in two hours with three fish landed. The best measured 50cm. I highly recommend surface fishing – it gets the heart pumping and you never know when or where you’re going to get hit.

The prestigious Fitters Classic was held recently on Possum Island. Dan Hawkins won with a 68cm fish. Tim Long and Russell Ferguson finished second and third respectively. ‘Ferg’ was in my boat and I’m sure had a tear in his eye when I made him release his 62cm fish. Peter Green took home the highly sort after NAFA award for some of his antics over the weekend.

If anybody has a good story or would like to report their catch from this area, drop me a line at --e-mail address hidden--

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Casting lipless crankbaits for native species, such as golden perch and Murray cod, is growing in popularity.